Monday 18 Aug 08
Slept in until nearly 9am this morning – the shock was so did the kids! Fed the kids and packed up nice and quick as we had to leave by 10 – them the rules. This morning the temperature was a lot warmer and it was quite pleasant without a jacket on.
The wife made me stop at the bakery again as she wanted to get some more of their bread. Have to admit, it is bloody good! Headed up towards Kiandra on the highway. The road itself was in a good condition, and the country was looking absolutely brilliant with a covering of white over it. It took quite a while to travel up to Kiandra as we kept stopping to get photos, hoping to get the perfect one.
From Kiandra we paid the $27 NPWS fee to enter the park and headed up towards Mt Selwyn. Having been there not too long ago, as well as doing a couple of the tracks in the area, we continued on to Cabramurra. I noticed that a lot of the machinery is now running chains, whereas three/four weeks ago they weren’t.
We stopped and grab some warm lunch for the kiddies, as it had been lightly snowing for the last hour or so, and we didn’t want them out and about. Jessica was starting to look and sound a lot better and we didn’t want to risk it too much. Heading down from Cabramurra we took Elliot Way (the main road to Tumbarumba). We stopped down at O’Hare’s for a rest before continuing on.
The plan was to head up Browns Trail which borders the Kosciusko N.P and the Maragle State Forest. Part way along it was getting muddy in some places so I dropped the tyre pressures to 20psi all round. Running as a rear wheel drive I was a little concerned, but I figured I have the winch if all else failed and I wasn’t really running out of trees in the forest. I came down a slippery hill and was confronted with a very muddy hill in front of me. I engaged the rear locker and gave it a go. I got ¾ of the way up the hill before I got stuck sideways. With a bit of heart in mouth I managed to reverse it back down to the bottom.
I considered giving it another go in third low instead of second, but looking at the track I was just going to tear it up more. So I bit the bullet and reversed track back to Elliot Way. Continuing on I found out that East Bago Powerline Rd is closed. So with little else left I turned off onto Maragle Powerline Rd. This road is s shortcut to go from Elliot Way down to Talbingo. You could get soft-roaders through here easily enough in the dry, but I wouldn’t consider it in the wet. Travelling along the road we came a cross a little pond of water – very nice.
At the top of the hill we met up with the turn off to Buddong Falls. We had done this part of the track earlier on in the year with Richard, so it was a straight forward ‘follow the track’ down into Talbingo. With Jessica’s health improving, we went down and set up camp at Jounama Creek. This is a great area to set up camp; however in the summer I reckon it’d be fairly popular for both people and snakes.
The rum tasted pretty damn good tonight.
Tuesday 19 Aug 08
Got up this morning and it was quite fresh. Jessica was coughing a little so we were slightly concerned about that. After having breakfast we packed up our stuff a little, but figured that surely in Australia and where we were we could leave the tent set up and no-one would touch it. A risk yes, but at the end of the day my faith was rewarded –nothing touched.
We headed into Talbingo and got a fishing licence so we could take the kids down to Blowering Reservoir. Cost of the licence is %6.50 ea and under 18 don’t cost anything. We continued on along the Snowy Mountains Highway into a few of the camping areas to try our luck. Unfortunately we had no luck but the kids had a lot of fun trying to learn to fish.
We headed back to the camp to cook lunch up.
After lunch we decided to give the other side of the reservoir a go (Bago State Forest).
We followed a track that paralleled the reservoir, but had trouble finding a way to the water. Eventually we found a way, but as per normal I was already in low range and finding the going a little tough in areas. Unfortunately the area we tried was covered in mud, and not really an option.
Knowing what I had just drove through, and that there was a major dirt road paralleling us, I decided to take the chance that this track continued around and joined up. Well it didn’t, but it led to a powerline track that was headed in the right direction. I turned onto it and followed it along. It was a chance encounter that worked exactly to our requirements – there was a heap of really dry wood sitting along the track that had been there for ages. We loaded up the roof rack and continued on.
The powerline track was interesting in areas, and I ended up with the locker on in a few places to get through. My guess that I’d meet the road ended up correct thankfully. This road goes from Talbingo through to Batlow. The old girl decided to overheat again – it was really doing my head in. It was starting to get on in time, so we headed back to camp.
I cooked up a spaghetti bolognaise for dinner, and the fire was absolutely brilliant that night. Jess was starting to cough again and it was concerning us quite a bit.
Wednesday 20 Aug 08
Jessica had a really bad night. We decided that it was time to call it a day. We packed up and slowly worked our way along the reservoir doing a little fishing along the way. We stopped and got some lunch at Tumut and continued on. Jessica fell asleep about half way home, so I took the boys down to the river just outside of Forest Hill on the way. About ½ hour into it Jessica woke up so we decided to head the 5 minutes home.
As I went to take of, a rattle I’d been hearing that was gradually getting worse turned into a god damn awful noise. I reversed and went forward a few times whilst the wife listened to where it was to isolate it for me. It was coming from the front left of the vehicle. I dove under and found that the brake pad securing pin had come loose and it was scraping on the rim every time I travelled forward. I got the pin back into its normal position, and I jammed a sticked into the hole to keep it in place. Talk about dodgy mechanics!!! 😉
Anyway, I managed to get the 5 minutes home without anything else breaking thankfully.
Overall, the trip wasn’t quite what we planned – well actually it was nothing like what we planned. However it was quite enjoyable the areas that we visited, as a lot of it we had drove past a lot of times without realising it was there. So it’s opened our eyes to some more areas fairly close to not only us, but also the guys in the Canberra and Albury areas.
Vehicle problems – well that wasn’t all that much fun. Overheating, thermostat, front propshaft, and front left brake – however it still got us home and ran at 11l/100km for the whole trip – including the low range work. So a few things to fix before November (Fraser) and a couple more things I want to modify before then.
As for the full SE coast – well it still leaves me wanting to get over there and continue on from where we got to. The areas that I seen (Bermagui and Wadbilliga) have left me wanting for more. So that’s going to be on the agenda – most likely winter next year at this stage. The reason for why so long – Fraser and possibly Townsville now in November, we have the High Country trip in Jan, and most likely I’ll head further down into the High Country after my first course next year ends (approx April). So the coast will have to wait a little bit I think.
Either way, I hope you enjoyed the report and it gives you all some ideas of other areas to visit other than the main tracks. As per normal the photos are located at: [url]www.4wdlinks.com.au/gallery/cewilson[/url] – however word of warning there’s approx 500 odd photos from this trip (the views were excellent all trip).
Cheers
Chris